Defining The Myth of the Female Hero

An extremely useful review of Jody Gentian Bowers’ book, Jane Eyre’s Sisters, by my own sister, Tanya Yatzeck!

Photo credit: amazon.com

Here’s an excerpt:

What I didn’t realize I needed for writing about my astronomer, and what I got by reading Jody Bower’s 2015 book Jane Eyre’s Sisters: How Women Live and Write the Heroine’s Story,” was an understanding of how women have developed the character arcs of their female protagonists in history.

Bower lists and compares the distinct characteristics of the male hero of the “Hero’s Quest” made famous by the writing of Joseph Campbell, and a female hero she calls “Aletis” “– the Greek term for ‘wanderer’.  The male hero leaves home a boy and a loner (to his family’s relief), performs a significant task to benefit others, and returns home a man ready to settle down (Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Frodo).

Read the whole post here!